How to Create the Perfect Nursing Portfolio

What Is a Nursing Portfolio?

A nursing portfolio is a collection of documents that demonstrates your professional goals, accomplishments, competencies and skills. It’s a visual and comprehensive record that represents your growth and accomplishments as a nurse.

Why is a Portfolio Important?

A nursing portfolio acts as an expansion of your CV and is a great source for potential employers to engage with during interviews. A portfolio is also helpful for keeping your materials related to nursing in one place such as your annual NMBI retention cert, records, educational certifications and degrees so they are easily available when you need them. Can’t find that certificate your new employer is looking for? Check your portfolio-it’s probably there! It’s something you can keep adding to during your career.

Your nursing portfolio helps you to market yourself better when applying for jobs. It helps employers understand your nursing abilities as it showcases your clinical expertise and skills. This in turn helps them determine whether or not you would be a good fit for their organisation.
A well-maintained portfolio provides employers with insight into your experience, preparation, accolades and scope of practice.

What Should You Include in Your Nursing Portfolio?

You can include some material that pertains to your nursing study and subsequent qualification. You also need to offer supporting documents, which provide proof of your achievements. If you recently graduated from university or completed a nursing postgraduate degree, you may want to provide your transcripts. You should include the following in your portfolio:

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Cover letter
• CV: Make sure this is is up to date. 
• Biography: Name, address, contact info, occupational health records.
• Education: Nursing degree and university attendance details. You can also include and extra enhanced nursing degrees or studies undertaken.
• Nursing Licensure: Proof of NMBI annual retention certification.
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD) certs: Certification cards such as BLS, CPI, etc., HSEland certs, patient moving and handling and other such certificates.
• Work Experience: A description of your work experience to date. If you’re newly graduated you can use this section to share details of your clinical experience or internship.
• Performance Evaluation: You can use this section to showcase your success! Recommendation letters, performance evaluations, positive feedback signed by supervisors, patient satisfaction surveys, thank you cards from patients can all go here. If you are recently qualified-you can put in written feedback from your preceptors as part of your placements.
• Professional Affiliations: If you won any awards as a nurse, are part of any healthcare committees, volunteer project work or do anything extracurricular that can reflect positively on you as an employee this can go here. For example if you teach first aid, have done volunteer work abroad or are part of a sporting club which demonstrates teamwork capabilities. Put proof of this in here-could add a picture!
• Academic Transcripts: Examples of professional or scholarly work such as articles or research. A great example is a literature review you might have had to write for your final year in college or the cover page of your thesis if you have done a masters.
• References: You can add references contact information at the end if you wish.

 

Displaying your Nursing Portfolio

When putting together your portfolio, it’s important to remember that your portfolio should look professional and not like a scrapbook. It’s a visual representation of you as an employee. Only put things in that you would like your employers to see.

It’s a good idea to organise your portfolio using a three-ring binder. You can develop a timeline of your career by adding documents in chronological order. Having a table of contents makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for.

It is advised to bring your portfolio to any interviews you are attending as a nurse as not only does it act as an impressive guide to potential employers, but it helps with nerves as it can be a good distraction for employers to flick through as they are talking to you! Even if you don’t feel like you are shining your brightest during an interview, then the portfolio will speak for itself. Not every nurse will have one of these, so it will help you stand out from the crowd.

Ready to Make Your Own?

If you are interested in putting together your nursing portfolio today and want to find out more, please feel free to contact us at Clarity where a dedicated recruitment consultant will be on hand to guide you through this process.

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